


Follow the Arrow

by BlackPrism



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underswap, Angst, Angst and Romance, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Romance, Smooching, Soulmates, Souls, Underswap Papyrus, Underswap Papyrus/Reader - Freeform, but only sligth angst, mostly fluff and awkwardness, us!papyrus - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 09:13:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,376
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13073766
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackPrism/pseuds/BlackPrism
Summary: You fall through a hole in the ground.You would never have guessed to meet your soulmate that way.Well, you also didn't expect your soulmate to be a skeleton.But hey, you are not picky.





	Follow the Arrow

**Author's Note:**

> A little present for beoteono on Tumblr (careful, it's an 18+ blog)
> 
> Papyrus is a nerd. Reader is a nerd. Everybody is a nerd. Enjoy ~

You rarely went hiking. Honestly never. And to keep being honest, you weren't actually hiking at the moment. It was more of a hellish torture, walking past rustling trees and bushes, the sun beating down on you. Only occasional shadows gave you some sort of relief, but it was short and barely helping.

You scratched the arm with that bloody arrow on it, which has started this all.

Everybody knew about arrows. It was hard not to know about them, all of the population sporting one on either the lower or upper arm. About them and about the fact that they pointed you towards your soulmate.  
But it wasn't like in the romantic stories on TV, where two lost souls met and instantly fell in love. 

Instead you were given the chance to meet the person that shared the same kind of soul as you did. The one person you just got along with naturally, like you have known each other for years. But you also could just live your life, like that arrow didn't even existed.

But of course that chance wasn’t given to you by your friends. And of course your arrow had to point to the largest mountain in the area.

Oh yes the famous mountain, they said. Let's go hiking, they said. It will be fun and not a hot, miserable part of your life, they said. Who knows who we meet along the way..

And then they dragged you along, your friends who usually made alright decisions. But this one, this one was clearly far from alright.

They dragged you out here into the middle of nowhere, the city you lived in hours away, just to lose you. Here. In the middle of plants you’ve never seen, and animals that seemed just a tad stranger than they should.

And now you were completely lost, not even trying to find your friends anymore, just trying to get out of this forest or off of this mountain. And that blasted arrow of your kept pointing farther and farther downwards. Wonderful. Great. Just amazing.

You huffed as you passed a blue, large flower, swearing you heard faint whisper come from within it. You raised your brows as you passed a pond filled with strange, black and white frogs, all of them blushing as you looked at them. You scratched your head as you passed a couple of fir’s, wondering why you could see a faint gleam of frost on them on such a hot day.

Maybe you had a heat stroke, you wondered. Maybe you were going insane from all these strange plants. Each of them could be poisonous for all you knew? Or could send out deadly spores, which turned you into a brain eating zombie.

You shook your head. Ok, heatstroke was more likely. But you usually didnt got them so easily… It would of course explain why your arrow suddenly pointed straight down, right into the ground.  
The ground gave you no time to dwell on that, opening up in an avalanche of earth, gravel and pineneedles and swallowing you whole.

\---

You woke up with a groan and a mouthful of snow. Hu? Alright. One problem solved. You weren’t hot anymore. New problems acquired. You were freezing and even more lost.

You looked upward with a jerk, remembering the fall and your heart sank. You could only see a small dot above you, which had been a rather large hole up close. The rest of your vision was filled with dark, grey rock.

You got up on stiff limbs. Huff, it was really cold in here. What kind of cave had snow like that in it? Snow and...an entire forest. Trees were all around you, all of them fir’s and pine’s. All of them covered in snow, as was the ground. 

You stood there in ankle deep snow, shivering in your thin, short clothes. It was hot and sunny outside, you never planned to wad through snow!  
But you couldn't stay here. You had to move, to get out and back into the warmth or you would plainly freeze to death. And that in the middle of the summer too! What a wonderful day today was…

You started walking into a random direction, your feet already numb and clumsy, the snow pouring into your open shoes. Maybe if you walked into one direction without turning neither left nor right nor back, maybe then you could find a wall and just move along it until you found an opening.

You walked past the same kind of trees, rows of them, wadded through untouched snow for what felt like hours, your limbs losing feeling more and more with every moment. You wouldn't last long like that. 

Then your feet suddenly hit harder ground and you stumbled out of the rows of trees onto a ..kind of path. Still covered with snow. Still cold. But...often walked, feet having already disturbed the snow here more than once. 

You shuddered not only from the cold. Did somebody live in this cave? You heard the legends of monsters in the mountain, but it was all just an old wives tale, right? Just something to keep most away from a mountain where more people went missing then anywhere else in the area.

You turned your head to the left and then the right. A big door was on one side, but even after you threw your numb and frozen body against it, it stayed in place. To the other side you saw something...wooden in the distance. Maybe you had more luck there? Monsters where honestly less terrifying than freezing solid in the middle of snow and ice.

You continued your journey on shaky legs, moving painfully slow towards the wooden gate you saw. A wooden gate and a bridge, both strangely out of place but definitely constructed by living hands. Somebody was down here!

Snow crunched behind you and you froze in place. Well you froze as much as you could, being already almost paralyzed by the cold. Somebody was down here and they were right behind you. You couldn't even turn your head, fear making you unable to move, rooting you to the spot.

“hey, don’t you know how to greet a new pal..?”

The voice was...rather mellow. Not deep, but also not high pitched, a nice balance between both. Rather quite, a bit more on the lethargic side. But you still couldn’t help but flinch.

“turn around and shake my hand…”

Your breathing quickened. You didn’t wanted to turn around, you really didn’t wanted to. Every part of your body was shaking, but not from the cold anymore. You had long stopped shivering from the cold. This was pure fear.

“not a fan of handshakes?”

You took a deep breath, closed your eyes, and turned around, your body barely able to move anymore. You stood like that for a few moments.

“you usually greet people with closed eyes?”

You opened your eyes. Well, alright. Now you were sure that you had gotten a heatstroke. Or hit your head when you fell.

In front of you stood a skeleton.

Living, breathing, clad in an orange hoodie and cargo shorts. Sneakers on his feet. One hand in his hoodies pocket, while the other one was outstretched in front of him. He raised one brow at you.

“you ok there pal?”

You stretched out your hand and gripped his.

The following sound almost gave you a heart attack. But the moment you realized what it was, you couldn’t help but laugh. Your voice was hoarse from breathing the ice cold air, the tears streaming out of your eyes turned into thin films of ice on your cheeks. But you couldn’t help it. A goddamn whoopie cushion!

“hehe, the old whoopie cushion in the hand trick. always good.”

He gave you a few moments to calm down again. 

“hey, you’re a human, right?”

“Y-...Yes…”, you choked out, giggles still blubbering up in your chest.

“i’m papyrus, papyrus the skeleton.”

He stretched his hand out again, smirking as you gave him a look. You wouldn’t fall for that again. Not right away at least.

“well, if you’re a human, you should be careful. my bro’s on his after-lunch patrol.”

“Your brother?”

Hu, there were more skeletons down here? You wondered how many. Maybe a whole civilisation? The cave was big enough for a lot of people after all.

“yeah. he’s really into the whole human hunting. so better don’t run into him.”

“Uhm...why are you...warning me like that? Don’t you have to...hunt me too?”

You felt a shiver run down your spine. Or at least you thought you did. You couldn’t feel your spine anymore.

“what, me? na. way too much work. and my bro is a big goof and would feel terrible ‘bout hurting you, and he just gets a bit too enthusiastic sometimes.”

You felt something close to relief. Oh, so Papyrus brother wasn’t dangerous? Just enthusiastic. Just prone to..accidentally hurting you..? Alright, relief was the wrong word.

“hey, i think i see him over there, follow me.”

You tried to move your legs, deciding to trust this strange, lanky skeleton. But they just wouldn’t cooperate. Your entire body was numb, unmoving, and the moment you tried to walk, you just toppled over. Your face hit the snow, and you let out a loud “Oompf”.  
Papyrus turned around, his footsteps came crunching back.

“uhm...i don’t mind you crawling after me, but...y’know, walking would be quicker.”

You lifted your head with some trouble, looking up at him.

“I don’t think...I don’t think I can actually..walk. I’m kind of frozen…”

Papyrus sighed.

“well, that doesn’t sound very cool…”

Was that...a pun? You weren’t sure…

“want me to lend you a hand?”

You decided to try something.

“Would be ice of you..”

His face fell for a second, eye sockets widening with slight surprise. Then he burst out laughing, covering his teeth with his hand.

“nye hehe hehe…...man, didn’t expect that...well, lending you a hand will be snow problem.”

He crouched down in front of you, grin still wide, and picked you up. He got back up on his feet.

“PAPYRUS?”

A slightly deeper, but extraordinarily loud voice rang out of the forest.

“aww shit, my bro’s fast.”

You saw him look in the direction you heard the second voice come from, before suddenly everything around you shifted. You blinked, shaking your head. And suddenly your surroundings were different.

Not too different, you still could see the bridge behind you. But you still had moved a few steps, now standing behind a lamp still in Papyrus arms. He sat you on the ground without much fuss.

“stay here.”

And then he was gone, appearing a few feet away next to the bridge, hands in his pockets.

“PAPY! THERE YOU ARE!”, the voice was closer now and you just now realized it’s volume. You heard crunching steps come nearer and a small skeleton, clad in what looked like….soft, makeshift armour, run out of the forest to your left.

“PAPY WHAT ARE YOU DOING THERE! YOU SHOULD BE ON PATROL!”

The smaller skeleton huffed and put his hands on his hips. 

“ah, me? na. i rather appreciate this lamp here.”

You froze. Shit! Was he ratting you out?

“WHAT? ARGH, PAPY I TOLD YOU TO TAKE YOUR JOB MORE SERIOUS! WHAT IF A HUMAN CAME THROUGH HERE?”

“well...i think they would also really appreciate this lamp, don’tcha think so?”

You saw his eye sockets flit over to you. Yeah, you sure did. You let out a breath you haven’t even realized you have been holding. Phew, not ratting you out. Just messing with you. Asshole.

 

You saw the smaller pinch the bridge of his nose. 

“PAPY…..JUST GO BACK TO WORK. I WILL CHECK ON YOU IN HALF AN HOUR! SO NO MORE SLACKING OFF!”

And off he was again. That went well.

“yeah, that was my bro.”

You flinched away, not noticing that Papyrus suddenly appeared behind you. He will give you heart attack one day, you just knew that already.

“He seems….nice..”

“he, yeah. he is just the coolest.”

He crouched down next to you, you able to look him directly into his eye sockets.

“so...i usually don’t offer this to every human, but do you wanna warm up at my place? you seem to be frozen to the bone, and i would feel kinda bad about just leavin’ you here like that.”

You stared at him, thinking. Should you go with him? You didn’t really have a choice. Sitting in the snow didn’t warm you up, to nobody's surprise, and you still could barely move on your own.  
And a part of you….trusted this strange skeleton. You didn’t know why, but you felt like you knew him already. Like an old friend, you met for the first time.

It may not have been smart, but you decided to believe that part of you, which told you to trust him.  
“Yeah, that would be amazing, to be honest!”

“well then, up we go.”

And he picked you up again.

“we gotta take the long way this time, can’t really port to far with you together.”

So he was teleporting? Strange. You wondered if all skeletons could do that?

“Sorry.”

“no problems, the scenic route has its perks.”

You leaned your head against his chest, wondering why you felt warm seep through his fabric. The faint smell of smoke penetrated your nose, and you sneezed.  
But you were still so cold, your frozen body tiring you out. You felt your eyes slide shut, the gentle rocking and rhythmic crunching of his steps lulling you to sleep.

\------

You woke up on something soft. You sighed and rolled over. Ugh. Still cold. Still frozen. Still….wait. You opened up your eyes, seeing a rather filthy, but mostly empty room. A desk, a wardrobe, a treadmill. And a blank mattress, you lying on top of it.  
Where am I, you thought as you sat up and looked around.

The room was empty, Papyrus wasn’t here. You tried getting up on frozen legs, but the time spent in here hadn’t been enough to thaw you enough to properly walk, so you just stood there, shakily. Hm. This was..not good.

Alright. You couldn’t get out, you couldn’t even cross the room. But you still had to warm up somehow. You grabbed some sheets, which were lying on top of the mattress in a creasy ball, and wrapped yourself in them.  
Then you wobbled over to the radiator next to the bed if you could call it that way, and sat down. YOU leaned against the radiator, cranking it up a notch, and waited.

By the time you could finally feel your limbs again and an uncomfortable feeling settled into them, like static running through your body, Papyrus returned. 

“hey there, sorry for the wait. my bro wanted me to actually finish my shift, and kept checking on me. tried sneaking back home, but man...sneaking past my bro is hard work, and i’m just to lazy for that..”

Hm...so this was his room? You kind of guessed that already.  
Papyrus stretched and pulled off his hoodie, revealing a black tank top and more ribs you have ever seen in your life in one place before. He really was a skeleton, from toes to skull.  
He plopped down next to you on the floor.

“I borrowed your...blanket.”

You jerked your head downwards, pointing at the sheet still wrapped around you.

“hu? oh, yeah sure. knock yourself out.”

You sat like that in awkward silence. Papyrus made grumbling sound and fished for his cigarettes after about a minute, placing it between his teeth and lighting it. Then he went silent again, smoking without another sound.

Taking one deep, last drag he tossed the stump of the cigarette into an ashtray, next to his bed.

“so…”

He started, searching for words.

“i got a bone to pick with you..”

Papyrus chuckled, but there was no real humour in it. It was more of a nervous sound.  
You fidgeted nervously on your spot on the floor. What exactly did he want to talk about?

“you got an arrow too, right?”

You managed to almost swallow your tongue in surprise. How did he know about arrows?

“i...take that as a yes.”

He scratched his lower arm, and you noticed how he was almost...hiding it from you.

“Skeletons have arrows too?”

“hu? yeah, sure. not only skeletons though. all monster’s got one.”

Hu...all monsters? You wondered what other kind of monsters lived down here. And why they all lived in a cave.

“So...you just wanted to ask about my arrow, because….it’s a form of small talk down here?”

He chuckled again, nervously.

“nah..not that...but, tell me..has your arrow ever done something...strange?”

You instinctively took a look at your arrow, rolling up your sleeve after freeing your arm from the blanket you were wrapped in.

Your arrow was pointing to the side. And it was….vibrating? You had never seen something like that before, only heard about it. Arrows had some kind of ridiculous vibration alarm, shaking when you were close to your soulmate. And their’s would do the same.

Papyrus raised his arm, showing an arrow pointing towards you, his also vibrating.

“well, mine for one is doing some weird shit…”

Hu, who would have known that falling into a cave, inside a mountain, would bring you to your soulmate. 

\------

You both were sitting on the mattress, Sans out for the night but downstairs still seeming a bit risky.

“So….how come you are all living under this mountain?”

Papyrus was smoking another cigarette, the smell similar to human cigarettes, but somehow..more pleasant. The smoke thick and seeming almost alive.

“well...there was a war. monsters got locked down here with a barrier.”

He took a drag, slowly letting the smoke curl out again.

“that’s why we need humans. seven souls to unlock the barrier.”

You furrowed your brows. A war? And souls. It seemed a bit...strange to you. In an uncomfortable way. Nobody deserved to be locked under a mountain until they are forgotten by everybody outside.

“soo…..”

Papyrus dragged the word out as far as he could. You looked at him with a cocked brow.

“what we gonna do now?”

“I don’t know.”

You really didn’t. Usually, you went out with your soulmate, like with everybody else who fancied your interest. Usually, it was just a regular person, somebody who could become a partner of you. The only change was, that you usually get along with this particular person better than with any other.  
“well...you can stay here for some time. can’t really leave as long the barrier is still there.”

“What about your brother?”

Papyrus chuckled.

“you won’t believe it, but another human came down here while you were out. tiny little kid, wrapped him around their finger in no time.”

Papyrus patted you on the back.

“don’t worry, he has no intend to capture anybody anymore.”

You leaned back against the wall with a sigh. You were save. You couldn’t leave, but you were safe. And ..you weren’t too sure anymore if you even wanted to leave.  
The short time you had spend with Papyrus..it felt like you were old friends, meeting each other again. Papyrus was laughing and chatting with you like you had done this a million times before. Is that what made soulmates so...attractive to everybody?

“do you wanna meet him? he should be home soon, movie nights usually only last till...2 or 3 am.”

“Hm...sure, why not.”

And Papyrus was right, the door opened and clicked shut barely half an hour later. Well, time to meet the small, loud skeleton. You were starting to regret your decision. What if he didn’t like you? What if he didn’t change his mind, and tried to capture you? You really would love to keep your soul, thank you very much.

But you still followed Papyrus out of his room and down the stairs. Sans was taking off his boots, stray snowflakes on his shoulders and on top of his skull.

“hey, bro, i wan’tcha to meet somebody.”

Sans lifted his head, his eye socket growing wide, the lights in them even wider. You raised your hand in an awkward greeting.

“Hi.”

“WOWIE! ARE YOU A HUMAN TOO!?”

He seemed to usually shout, you flinched a bit at the volume of his voice.

“OH SORRY, I DIDN’T WANTED TO SHOUT...PAPY ALWAYS TELLS ME I SHOULD USE MY INSIDE VOICE...I’M JUST SO EXCITED! MWEHEHE..”

“Ah..uhm...don’t worry, it’s fine.”

Papyrus scratched the back of his skull. There was still one more thing his brother needed to know.

“uhm...bro. there’s another thing.”

“YES?”

“they are..kind of...my soulmate.”

You expected anything. From Sans getting angry and kicking you out, to him still harvesting your soul. But what you didn’t expect was him to squee in a high pitched way, you wouldn’t thought possible with his rather deep voice. His eye lights turned to stars and he looked like Christmas was just declared an everyday holiday.

“PAPY! I’M SO HAPPY FOR YOU! I KNEW YOU LOOKED HAPPIER TODAY, BUT I DIDN’T KNEW WHY! SEE, I TOLD YOU YOU HAVE A SOULMATE TOO!”

Papyrus blushed.

“ah..bro, that was..not something you should shout around.”

“AH, I’M SORRY! I’M JUST SO HAPPY!”

Sans hugged his brother, before turning and hugging you, almost throwing you to the floor with his enthusiasm. You were sure now that your soul was safe, at least from this excited goofball.

“YOU ARE STAYING WITH US, RIGHT?”

He looked up at you, still holding you in a tight hug. You looked at him, then at Papyrus who just shrugged, his face still dusted with an orange blush.

“Uhm..yeah, sure, why not.”

\------

And that is how you moved in with the skeletons. It was rather awkward at first. Both you and Papyrus wanted to spend time with each other, but...in the end, you barely knew each other. It was strange to just hug or kiss, like you thought would be appropriate for soulmates. Maybe it even wasn’t the thing you were supposed to do? Maybe you were supposed to just...talk? Take walks together? Dance? Sing? You both had no idea what to do, so you ended up picking the thing Papyrus wasn’t too lazy to do, and that was talk.

You chatted about your families, your lives. Your hobbies, your favourite movies. You learned about the other. You told Papyrus about the surface and how humans lived up there, while he told you about the Underground and monsters in return.

And before you noticed it you weren’t just sitting next to each other, but leaning against each other.  
Suddenly your hand was caressing his skull which was resting in your lap. Suddenly you woke up, limbs entangled, the soft light of the early morning shining through the window.

“uhm…g’morning.”

“Morning.”

You looked each other in the face, just to both blush and look away again. But..it wasn’t awkward. It was strange, it was new, it was..uncertain. But it wasn’t awkward. You decided to test your boundaries.

You leaned forward, planting a small kiss on his cheek. His face lit up like a flashlight, and orange blush making his entire face glow. Oh, cute…You really wanted to see how bright you could make him glow.

You pushed him onto his back, crawling on top of him and supporting yourself with your hands, positioning yourself above him. Papyrus looked at you through confused sockets, hands nervously running up and down your back.  
You leaned forward, pressing your lips softly against his teeth. Papyrus froze, but slowly, softly returned the kiss, running his hands up your back and into your hair, slowly stroking it with gentle fingers.

You parted your lips, your tongue licking over his teeth, asking him to open, to let your tongue in. His teeth were smooth and tasted like something sweet, maybe honey? Honey and smoke. A pleasant taste that reminded you of those honey and bbq chips you bought from time to time, just warmer, fuller, more familiar.

His teeth parted, and to your surprise, your tongue was greeted by his. Papyrus tongue was warm and smooth, and as you cracked open your eyes, you saw it glowing the same way his face did. How did a skeleton have a tongue? You decided not to ask, as you pressed your body closer to his, resting on to your forearms, one hand gripping his skull.  
You smiled as you saw that his blush has travelled from his face and engulfed his entire skull.

You stroked your tongue along Papyrus’, twisting and turning a few times. YOu both pressed your mouths against the others, softly sucking the other's breath away, your tongues still stroking against each other, licking, tasting, feeling.  
You ran your tongue along his, curling around it one last time, before you both retreated again, breathing but not parting yet. He smelled like smoke and something fruity. Maybe a shower gel, or a washing powder.

One of his hands kept stroking your hair as you ended the kiss, sinking down on him and placing your head onto his chest, eyes still closed, just listening to his soul beat in his ribcage. Papyrus other hand slid down the side of your head, lazily cupping your face for a moment, before plopping down onto the mattress beside you two.

You turned your head slightly, barely suppressing a laugh as you opened your eyes. His face could have been used as an emergency light in a blackout. He looked down at you through half-lidded eye socket, skull slightly raised to see you and grinned sheepishly.

“well...that was something.”

“It sure was. You are orange like a warnlight.”

Papyrus let his head fall back onto his pillow.

“well, g’night.”

“No! Don’t just fall asleep! I have questions!”

“no, i’m asleep, too late.”

“No, you are not!”

You hit him on the shoulder, laughing.

“zzzzzzz”

“Stop saying “z” out loud!!”

Ironically enough, you ended up falling asleep before Papyrus.

\------

Days later you woke up to Sans shouting something downstairs.  
The barrier had been broken. The kid did it.  
You honestly almost forgot about that, the kid journeying through the Underground for two weeks, or maybe even longer. You could get out now. You all could.

And you didn’t mind leaving anymore. You would be taking somebody with you after all. You looked over at Papyrus, still drowsy from sleep. Yes, you really didn’t mind leaving, you didn’t mind staying. You would take whatever the future gave you, you had somebody who made you happy and that was all that mattered to you.

Seeing the sunlight was..somehow strange. You almost forgot how it felt. You smiled as you saw different monsters and the two skeletons you learned to adore, look up at the rising sun. All of them had smiles on their faces.  
The kid wasn’t there, you saw them briefly before they disappeared back into the cave. You heard them mumble something about “forgotten someone” to the tall woman, clad in white fur and a purple dress.

But honestly, it was none of your business. You neither knew the kid, nor the woman, nor the person the kid forgot inside. You sighed as you turned your gaze back to the sunrise before you, holding Papyrus’ bony hand while you pressed your body against his. He returned the gesture, you able to feel the warmth of his bones through his fabric, like on that first day you met.

Suddenly, the world around you..stopped. Reversed. And faded to black.

\------

The kid reset. The kid reset because they wanted to help somebody. But they didn’t want to tell Papyrus who it was. Or if it worked. They just promised they wouldn’t do it again, they didn’t know anybody would remember.  
Papyrus believed them. He always trusted people to soon, always believed in the ones who he shouldn't believe in. It was his weak spot, and he knew it. But he still believed the kid.

And he wouldn’t have minded it too much, reliving the same two weeks one more time wasn’t the worst that could happen. He could be way smoother towards you. Maybe he could even...kiss you first? He blushed again, just thinking about it.

But you didn’t fall again. Everything stayed the same, except for that one, small thing. You didn’t fall like you just...didn't find the loose part of ground again. Like you walked a different way by accident. Papyrus chuckled darkly to himself. Of course. Of course, everything had to stay the same, except for the way you walked. Or for how much weight the ground up there held.

He searched the whole forest, but to no avail. You weren’t there and you didn’t come. Papyrus just knew there was no soulmate for him. He always knew he wouldn’t have one, and he was right. Technically, yes, he had one. But you had been ripped away, you were gone. And he didn’t know if he would see you again.

Then the kid opened the barrier again, but Papyrus smile was..forced. He has seen the sun before. With you. But now he was alone and it didn’t feel right.

Monsters slept under the open sky that night, nobody going to bed early. Everybody was marvelling at the stars and the moon. Everybody was talking about the next day where they wanted to go into the city, not too far away. Where they would meet humans.

The next day went well. Humans had changed since the war, as had monsters. Not everybody was accepting, but monsters were allowed to stay in the city, sleep in hotels until they had their own flats and houses. Search for a job. Change their currency to buy grocery and pay rent.

Days passed in a blur. But Papyrus couldn’t bring himself to smile. He stayed inside most of the day, sulking. Watching human TV. Staring outside with a solemn face.

This went on for long enough after three days, at least in Sans’ opinion. He shooed his brother outside, Papyrus leaving the house grumbling and in a bad mood. His gaze flickered down to his forearm.

Maybe…

He rolled up his sleeve, looking at the arrow. Maybe he could hope just a bit more. And he followed his arrow, slow steps, turning into a fast sprint. Maybe he could just hope for a short time. Just a bit.

He ended up in a small, open place. One of the smaller town squares. But even with the crowd bustling to all sides, Papyrus still could see you.  
You were there, sitting on a bench, gaze lowered on the phone in your hand.

His soul almost lept out of his ribcage. You were there! He found you! He….You don’t know him. You didn’t remember him. Papyrus hope sank low, his shoulders dropping. He didn’t know if he could do this again. Not like this. Not somewhere, where there were so many people around you, so many people who were better than him.

He thought he could live through the same two weeks. But he barely managed to get through them. How was he supposed to begin something with you anew, that he already had? Something he had, but that was taken away from him. Like it was never there in the first place.

He turned around. Maybe later. Maybe someday. But he couldn’t pretend to not know you, to be slow so he wouldn’t scare you away. To live with the fear to be to fast or know too much about you and scare you away.

His arrow started shaking. A hand gripped his shoulder. Warm, gentle, soft.

“Do you just ignore all your partners after not seeing them for a while, or is that a special pleasure reserved just for me?”


End file.
